Taylor Herring’s Inbetweeners campaign pulls record audience for E4.

The first episode of the new series of The Inbetweeners drew a record average audience of 2.6m/12.5% share last night, making it the highest rating programme ever broadcast on the E4.  

The audience peaked at 3m/14.8% during the last 5 minutes, and the show garnered an impressive 33.9% share of 16-34s, with 64% of the total audience coming from this demographic.

During the slot, The Inbetweeners was the second most watched programme across all channels behind the Ten O’clock News on BBC One, beating ITV News at Ten (2.1m) and Grandma’s House on BBC Two (777k).

E4’s previous highest overnight rating was an episode of Friends, which drew 2.4m in January 2003. Coming a close second was smash hit acquisition Glee, which scored an audience peak of 2m on March 29^th this year.

The previous highest rating E4 original commission was Hollyoaks, which drew an overnight audience of 2m/11% on 10^th August 2008.

The Inbetweeners series 3 launch rating of 2.6m makes it the highest rating digital comedy of the year, ahead of BBC 3’s Gavin and Stacey: The Out takes 1.262m/5% on January 1^st 2010.

Nerys Evans, Commissioning Editor Comedy said, “We’re so delighted that Series 3 has kicked off with such a fantastic episode and in record breaking style too. It’s also great to know that the rest of the series is absolutely jam packed with comedy treats for The Inbetweeners fans to look forward to.”

Paul Mortimer, Channel Manager E4 and More4, said: “Monday’s launch of The Inbetweeners delivered phenomenal ratings and was the best start to what is the biggest ever season on E4. With the return of Misfits, Hollyoaks Later and a dozen other new and returning premieres between now and Christmas, we aim to ensure that our audience of twenty-somethings is spoiled rotten with quality entertainment as the nights begin to draw in.”

The second series of The Inbetweeners aired in April 2009, and launched with an average audience of 1.3m. The series went to average 1.2m/7% share.